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Let´s create our own collaborative economy? (São Paulo)

Today I had this idea...I think because recently more articles have come up on "collaborative economy", "gig economy" and all around us there are more and more examples of activities based on this kind of concept..Airbnb´s, "brechó´s" on Facebook, Uber´s...today I even found a website on trading used and unused perfumes! Anyway, so my point is, clearly our lifestyles, our business´s and inevitably the global economy (or especially in developed countries but also in some developing countries like Brazil!) seems to be making a slow but truly significant shift towards sharing, trading, providing personal services/gigs etc...I would say we´re moving more towards real communities, in some ways seemingly closer to what we once had in the past, and I guess ironically what you have in some poorer or rural communities as well (but on a global level!)! This in itself would be a great subject for an interesting discussion but, what I would like to say is that I think we could promote and develop a group here on Internations where, in this spirit, we could provide all kinds of support to eachother.
Many of us know the city well, have some kind of comfort or support system in place but we don´t always find the best options in terms of various kinds of services or just a support structure in itself. The reality is São Paulo is a developing city with quite a few first-world options but still not always the most convenient or consistent ones. Sometimes we need to do some kind of a home improvement and it seems like forever to find the right person, sometimes we need a simple way to transport some items in our move and the price is ridiculous, sometimes we just need to do our laundry and have no space for a washing machine and end up having an expensive bill at the laundry store every month, and so on.
So, my idea is to start supporting eachother and trading or providing all kinds of small or big services and gigs. For example, someone needs a weekly place to do their laundry they use someone else´s washing machine, in exchange for a big home-baked cake, or someone needs help with a document translation and the other happens to be able to work on that translation and is in need of a pick-up for a new refrigerator they just bought, or someone just has a good pair of tennis shoes that they never used and is looking for tickets for that sold-out event which the other person can get! Anyway, I think you get the idea, we could exchange or provide all kinds of day-to-day useful services to eachother! The motto would be primarily to trade services or goods but of course we could also provide these at a friendly cost!
I guess trust is needed but I think it starts from our common thread of being in the same expat situation where not everything is always easy, and we don´t always have the support system that we would have back at home. So, why not create one? I think we could develop a specific group in this community which could truly activate that sense of being a part and contributing to a group of people facing the same kind of daily problems and needs!
Thanks and I´d love to hear your opinion on this and then, if there seems to be good feedback, we could actually develop this group where we could all start by stating what we are able to provide or what we´re looking for?
Cheers!
Sofia

São Paulo Forum

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